


Impression drabbles

by astrokath



Series: Kath's drabbles100 collections [4]
Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-30
Updated: 2014-03-30
Packaged: 2018-01-17 14:10:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1390666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrokath/pseuds/astrokath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>5 drabbles on the theme of Impression.</p><p>Queen / Joker / Reflections/ Found / Heart</p>
            </blockquote>





	Impression drabbles

**Queen**  
  
Poise, beauty, rank.  A kindly touch.  A fighting spirit.  A keen will.   
  
I make no pretence of my inspection.   
  
These are the Searched, the chosen of bronzeriders; they have all the usual attributes of their kind.    
  
Desperate to prove themselves worthy, they have been told many things, and believed some. Many changes in minds and morals have been wrought by these scant few days.   
  
One and all, they muster hope and confidence... but my daughter is not blind to their uncertainties.   
  
Just as I did, she chooses.  Only one is right for her.   
  
The one who is true to herself.

 

 

 **Joker**  
  
Someone had left a bag of flour precariously wedged above the Headwoman's door.  
  
Normally, Joniker would've approved of such a good prank, but not today, on the morning of the hatching! And who'd been hauled up in front of the Weyrleaders? Joniker.  
  
He'd been shaking by the time they let him go, still dubious of his innocence. Joniker swore right then and there that once he'd Impressed he'd devote himself to being a _serious_ dragonrider.  
  
Later, when the little blue dragon announced his name, and the whole Weyr laughed... well, J'ker knew then that it _wouldn't_ be an easy job.

 

 

 **Reflections**  
  
Heart-torn, she watches her reflection, her sister. They’d shared everything once: a life, a womb, always there for each other. She’d insisted they not leave her sister behind when she was Searched, that they’d always be together.  But not now, not with that golden adoration lighting up her sister’s face.  
  
She struggles to make sense of it, how this could happen. Stronger, braver and quicker of wits since birth, where she’d led, her sister had followed.  But now she’s the one who’s following, inexorably left further behind with each passing second, and alone for the first time in her life. 

 

 

 **Found**  
  
  
He used to play at Dragonriding.   
  
He was always the first Searched, and invariably Impressed bronze. In their games of Threadfighting, slashing at the Hold's greenery with sticks, he was the wingleader, valiant and brave. And when Searchriders came for real, why, no-one was surprised to see him singled out!   
  
Back at the Hold, he'd been larger than life, a leader of his peers. But at the Weyr, it seemed he was just another candidate, no-one special at all.   
  
All of those games of dragons on Search.... Not one of them prepared you properly for life after you'd been _found._

 

 

 **Heart**  
  
Our eyes met.  
  
The cliched stories tell of rainbows, all-encompassing delight, the knowledge that you'll never be alone again.  
  
Doesn't that scare anyone?  
  
Don't they lie awake at night, while their dragon sleeps deeply, wondering if they've changed? If they're still who they were before?  
  
There's no going back, not unless you have it torn out, tearing yourself apart, leaving your heart in tatters. And whose heart was it by then, anyway?  
  
Yours, without a doubt.  
  
Were you truly so empty, your heart so formless, needing me so much?    
  
You would have died without me, so it must be so.


End file.
